The Greene County Schools board of education met Thursday, Dec. 16, after delaying the regular meeting from Dec. 15 due to predicted hazardous weather. The meeting was held at 4 pm in the middle school foyer, with skylights and daylight from the entryway the only light available due to the storm-related power outage. “We’ve got to get this done rapidly,” board president Steve Fisher said as he called the meeting to order, referring to the limited time before nightfall and darkness in the school.
Fisher suggested that going forward, the board begin meetings with the Pledge of Allegiance. “Since we’re asking our kids now to start their days with the Pledge of Allegiance, I thought it would be a good idea if we did the same thing,” he said.
Unless someone objects, that will begin in January.
Despite the need for brevity, the board pulled two resignations from the consent agenda at the suggestion of superintendent Tim Christensen. The first was the resignation of eighth grade science teacher Emily Shinkle, submitted to be effective Dec. 17. The board accepted the resignation but will file a complaint of breach of contract with the Board of Educational Examiners. Shinkle’s short notice mid-year resignation will be put in her permanent file with the BOEE.
The second was the resignation of longtime elementary principal Scott Johnson effective at the end of the school year. Johnson has been with the district for 19 years; he plans to retire from education. The board approved a resolution commending Johnson for his service to the district.
Christensen has already begun advertising for a science teacher. He said there are internal candidates for the principal position.
In an item not related to Johnson’s retirement, the board approved an extra $1,000 incentive for staff who plan to retire at the end of the school year and who notify the district before Jan. 14, 2022. Existing policy allows classified staff who are age 55 by June 30 and have worked for the district for at least 10 years to be paid for up to 90 days of unused sick days. Teachers and administrators are paid 40 percent of their daily rate. The notification of intent to retire must be received by the district by Feb. 28 for that incentive. The early notification incentive is in addition to the payment for unused sick time.
“The sooner we can advertise for teachers, the better,” Christensen said. There are about 15 employees who meet the age/years of service criteria for retirement.
Fisher called the early notification incentive “a little carrot” to offer when the district does not offer a large retirement incentive as a budget tool. Those incentives can be as much as 45 percent of an employee’s salary.
Newly-elected board members Cindy Daubendiek, Michelle Fields and Bonnie Silbaugh faced Covid-19 mitigation issues for the first time as Christensen explained he was notified by the Iowa Headstart program that the federal government plans to mandate Headstart teachers be fully vaccinated and all children age 2 and older in the program wear facemasks while in their classroom. Christensen said the point of the correspondence was “to find out if that’s something school districts are going to support or not.”
“I would request that the board come out and say they are not supportive of this mandate for Headstart,” Christensen said.
In the Greene County district, many youngsters attend a half-day of Headstart (federally funded) and a half-day of pre-kindergarten (state funded). The district would lose the federal funds if parents pulled their children from the program rather than cooperate with a mask mandate. It would also mean the district would need to do more midday transportation for youngsters in only pre-kindergarten.
Daubendiek said she was concerned by the possibility of losing students and funding, and asked if one or two students were pulled, would the total amount of providing the program still be justified.
Fisher has argued against a mask mandate several times. He said Headstart is an optional program and that he thinks more than a couple of children would be taken out if masks were mandated.
The board agreed with Christensen’s suggestion to not support the vaccine/mask mandate now and reconsider the situation should the mandate be implemented.
The board approved the At Risk/Dropout Prevention Program for 2022-23 to include the alternative school, the Success Center at the high school, mental health counseling, reading extensions and support, nursing services, guidance support services, an at-risk coordinator, academic credit recovery, a behavior management program and career readiness (IJAG). The board also approved a request to the School Budget Review Committee (SBRC) for $431,679 for the program.
The board approved transferring the remaining funds in the capital project fund to the sales tax fund. District business manager Brenda Muir said there was less than $2 to transfer.
A demonstration of the new math curriculum was postponed.
During the “reports and correspondence” portion of the meeting school technology director Brent Gersema said the diesel generator installed to power the IT system came on as intended during the power outage, allowing servers and wifi to remain online. “It was a good real-life test of the new generator and the new building, and it all went very, very well. I’m happy with that,” he said.
Activities director Todd Gordon reported he is gathering information for a proposal for renovations at Linduska Field. He said he’d like to have the crown taken off the south end of the field, replace the irrigation system, put down new grass, and replace the lights. He said the lights on the field cannot be replaced. He hopes to have the proposal finished for the January board meeting.
